Looking to hire Google Analytics experts? With so many options available, including freelance platforms, professional networks, and traditional in-house recruitment, it can be challenging to know where to start.
In this article, we’ll explore which hiring model is best suited to your specific needs. We’ll also examine the types of projects Google Analytics consultants can support, the potential ROI of partnering with GA4 specialists, and the key skills to look for when choosing the right expert.
Vidi Corp is a specialised agency providing Google Analytics consulting services such as audits, setups and configuration. Our experience in delivering 1000+ Google Analytics implementations gives us a unique perspective on this topic since we understand what skills and experience are needed for each type of project.
Google Analytics consultants are experts who help clients to set up, configure and audit their GA4 property. They accurately track website events such as purchases and lead form submissions and ensure that this data is passed to marketing platforms such as Facebook and Google.
Google Analytics consultants help clients to set up Google Analytics in a way that aligns with their marketing goals, such as tracking conversion events for lead generation and ecommerce websites and tracking where the traffic comes from.
A standard GA4 setup involves setting up the base GA4 code for tracking standard metrics like number of users, sessions, etc. GA4 setups are usually done by adding a Google Tag Manager code to the website or through native integration with the CMS.
Google Analytics consultants then configure the GA4 property to track custom events such as e-commerce (add-to-cart, checkout, purchases) and form submissions. Every website uses its own plugins for lead forms and e-commerce, so these events have to be configured individually for every website.
Google Analytics consultants identify data inaccuracies in tracked events, diagnose what causes them and correct the issues to restore tracking accuracy.
Most GA4 tracking inaccuracies are caused by website changes and multiple people working on the GA4 property over time. For example, an e-commerce brand can change multiple PPC agencies over the years, and each one of them risks making changes that conflict with the previous GA4 configuration.
Finally, Google Analytics consultants create custom reports and dashboards to support decision-making with data analysis.
Sometimes, custom reports can be created in Google Analytics itself. For example, we regularly run GA4 reports that analyse which pages users visit before they convert. These reports help to analyse the typical user journey and plan for ways to shorten it.
Custom reporting in Google Analytics has a lot of limitations, so Google Analytics consultants often analyse data in Looker Studio. Working in Looker Studio gives more control over dashboard design and helps to combine multiple data sources in a single report. You can see an example of the Google Analytics SEO dashboard that we created in Looker Studio below.
The cost of hiring a Google Analytics expert depends on whether you are hiring an employee, a freelancer or an agency.
As a specialised Google Analytics agency, we charge $100 per hour for our services. Many Google Analytics audits and setups can be done for under $1,000, but in some complex cases, the cost can get up to $4,000.
This hiring model is ideal if you need to hire a Google Analytics expert to address a specific issue with your setup.
If you hire an in-house Google Analytics specialist, the cost will largely depend on the location where you are hiring. Hiring in the US can cost around $100,000 per year and hiring offshore can cost around $40,000 per year.
Hiring an in-house Google Analytics specialist makes sense if you have a large, growing portfolio of websites. For example, if you run a marketing agency, you need to set up Google Analytics for every new client that you onboard. This way, your Google Analytics expert has new tasks to work on every month.
If your website plays an important role in your business, the benefits of hiring a Google Analytics expert are immense. If you market your website through multiple channels and most of your revenue comes from your website, a Google Analytics consultant can drive the following benefits for your business:
Google Analytics consultants ensure the accuracy of your marketing data so you can make decisions with confidence. Accurate data underpins many initiatives such as conversion rate optimisation, marketing campaign optimisation and reporting to partners.
For example, in our recent project, we helped an e-commerce brand to implement server-side GA4 tracking, which increased the visibility of their key events across Google, Bing and Facebook Ads by 20%. This helped them pass more data to the marketing pixels, and they immediately saw a rise in their reported ROAS.
In most cases, it is a lot more time-efficient to hire a Google Analytics expert for a task rather than learning GA4 from scratch. Google Analytics consultants can handle complex implementations and free up time to your team.
When beginners set up GA4, the implementation often needs to be adjusted later on. An experienced Google Analytics specialist can create a future-proof setup that saves you time down the road.
For example, in our project with an automotive marketing agency, we developed standard Google Tag Manager templates that reduced the time for implementation from 8-10 hours to 2-5 hours per website. At the same time, the reporting accuracy increased by 40% across all the channels.
Google Analytics consultants can help you configure GA4 to make it compliant with data privacy legislation like GDPR and CCPA.
Google Analytics is not compliant with this legislation out of the box. Companies that receive a lot of traffic from the EU and California are risking expensive lawsuits if their website gets reported.
In our recent project with an e-commerce brand we collected user consent signals using Cookiebot. As a result of our implementation, the website visitors were prompted with a banner asking them to consent to the website collecting their data. This banner was automatically prompted for website visitors from California and the EU and hidden for the rest of the world.
When you hire a Google Analytics expert, it is important to ensure that they have skills in all of the technologies that you use. If your Google Analytics consultant does not have the right combination of skills, you will likely spend more money and time on your setup and configuration.
Clearly outline your GA4 goals, such as the exact website events that you need to track, marketing platforms that you need to integrate with (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc) and server-side vs web-side tracking.
When you send your requirements to a Google Analytics consultant, it is also useful to mention your CMS (WordPress, Shopify, etc).
Importantly, Google Analytics experts rarely work with data layer edits and implementation. As a result, it is often helpful to have a web developer who can support your GA4 project with data layer changes.
Based on your requirements, you can decide whether it makes sense to engage a Google Analytics specialist for a fixed price project, work with a consultant on an hourly basis, or hire part-time or full-time.
Typically, you would only hire part-time or full-time if you have a stable amount of work every month. If the amount of GA4-related tasks is unpredictable every month, it is safer to work with a specialised Google Analytics consultancy on an hourly or fixed-price project basis.
Your Google Analytics expert needs to have experience with Google Tag Manager, your content management system (e.g. Shopify, WordPress) and your marketing platforms (e.g. Facebook, Reddit, TikTok).
Google Tag Manager skills are essential to track custom conversions on your website.
Experience with your CMS helps Google Analytics experts to understand the website code and deploy changes more efficiently.
Finally, experience with Facebook CAPI or other marketing pixels is essential to ensure that you pass your website data accurately to your marketing platforms.
Make sure that your Google Analytics expert has strong communication skills and can clearly explain how they would approach your project.
For example, at Vidi Corp, we offer a free initial consultation call where our Google Analytics experts review your current setup and provide recommendations to improve it.
The ROI of hiring a Google Analytics consultant mainly comes from increased marketing ROAS and better marketing decisions that you can make.
By tracking your conversion events more accurately, you can pass more data to your marketing platforms like Google, Meta, Bing, etc. This data feeds into their marketing algorithms, allowing them to find higher-quality traffic for your website.
By having access to accurate data, you can also make better decisions on which marketing channels to invest in more and which ads to scale or pause.
Do you want to audit your GA4 property or track new conversions on your website? If so, contact us now and hire a Google Analytics expert on an hourly or fixed price basis to configure your GA4 quickly and efficiently!
